1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical element positioning method for accurately determining the relative positional relation between a plurality of optical elements and to an optical element assembly utilizing such method.
The term "optical elements" used herein includes optical parts such as a lens, a prism, a mirror, etc. as well as radiation elements such as a photoelectric conversion element (radiation-responsive element-hereinafter referred to as a photoelectric sensor or a sensor), an electro-light conversion element (e.g., LED or the like), etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For example, a metering sensor or a range finding sensor heretofore used in a camera has been inserted in a mold part or a ceramic container and actually mounted in the camera. It has been extremely difficult to highly accurately determine the positional relation between these sensors and other optical elements or parts such as a lens, a prism, a mirror, etc. and for example, a method has been adopted which comprises adjusting and fixing them at the best position while measuring the sensor output when they are actually mounted in the camera. However, when the sensors are actually mounted in the camera, accidents such as breakage of lead wires have been liable to occur during position adjustment because the lead wire and a flexible print plate have been soldered in almost all cases, and moreover, much time has been required leading to a great inconvenience. Particularly, in the case of the distance detecting or range finding sensor, it has been necessary to dispose one or more range finding or focus detecting optical parts in the optical path between the sensor and a picture-taking lens and high accuracy has been required to determine the relative position of the optical part or parts and the range finding sensor and therefore, position adjustment has been very complex and has required considerable skill.